A lot of transport damage, whether to boxes on a pallet, a bulky piece of furniture or a machine part, comes down to packaging that couldn't cope with the weight, the shape or the strain along the way. A box that is too thin, missing filling material or a poorly secured pallet are often enough for a shipment to arrive damaged.
When you ship by freight forwarder, your goods travel as general cargo together with other shipments and are reloaded along the way at a transhipment hub, the depot where shipments change lorries, with a forklift or pallet truck. That's why they must be packed securely for transport and liftable from below on a pallet, in a mesh pallet box (a steel mesh container on a pallet base) or as an IBC (a plastic tank in a mesh frame). Liftable from below means that the forks of a pallet truck or forklift fit underneath, as with a Euro pallet with a clearance of about 10 cm. The right packaging noticeably reduces the risk of damage. Liability is excluded for damage caused by inadequate packaging, and whether transport insurance applies depends on the insurer's conditions.
This is how to load and secure a pallet properly when preparing it for shipping: heavy boxes at the bottom, light ones on top, nothing over the edge of the pallet, then wrap the whole thing several times in stretch film and, if necessary, fix it to the pallet with strapping. You can read how to book the pallet afterwards in our guide to pallet shipping. For large single items there is the guide Shipping bulky goods, and for sofas, wardrobes and the like, the guide Shipping furniture.
